La Liga

i can see koeman as being an absolute flop, imagine barca finishing out the CL spots…i know it sounds improbable but stranger things have happened even though it would be hard because La Liga is 2 team league.

:ozil: :laca2:

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Koeman’ is huge and will get some leeway with the fans.
Don’t see Messi leaving either. He should stable the ship but be a while before they get back to European glory. Domestic needs to be his first goal.

Will he? Based on him being a good player 25-30 years ago? If Paul Merson or Alan Smith had his CV i can’t imagine 2020 Arsenal fans would be giving them a great deal of leeway if it wasn’t going well.

This is underwhelming. They didn’t even see him take Holland far in a tournament so it’s not even like he’s riding a small wave of recent noticible success to give him some credit.

This is still a huge job and Barca aren’t even at rock bottom. Still got within 5 points of the title and to the CL QFs. There’s plenty of room to decline further so this is a really big risk.

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It’s definitely possible if Messi gets a significant injury or heads for the exits.

Don’t agree tbh. Scoring and captaining Barca to the first European cup under Cruyff is a defining moment for them and will imo count.
As for his international work,he just qualified the Dutch to their first finals in a few tournaments and had them among the favourites for the tournament.
He wont revolutionise them but it’s not what they need right now.

Perhaps most bizarre of all is the fact he has been given a two-year deal, despite the fact he would have been quite happy to sign for one and that he is going to be replaced by club legend Xavi - currently managing in Qatar - after next March’s presidential elections, if Bartomeu’s chosen candidate does not get elected.

The vast majority of candidates have stated Xavi will be their man of choice if elected, so one of their first jobs will probably be to pay compensation to the outgoing Dutchman.

Good read this

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They gave him a two year contract. Man, Bartomeu is just burning the house down on his way out. The whole thing is so strange. I know there’s really no “rebuild cycle” for post-Rivaldo modern Barcelona but if there was ever a year to just rip it up and play some kids, this is it. They’re not going to catch Madrid next season and they have no money. Maybe the right thing to do is let Messi go (along with the other core players) and start to rebuild around Coutinho (because nobody will take him), Griez (because nobody will take him) and Dembele (because nobody will take an injured player).

Good guy Henrik Larsson joins Koeman at Barca:

Not sure what I think about his managerial skills tbh but who knows. Haven’t paid attention to what he’s done as a manager/coach in Sweden at the handful of teams he’s been at, but I know I would’ve heard about it if he did well, all I know is that he got relegated from the top division with a mediocre team back a few years ago, not sure if it was his fault or not.

I’ll try and forget the role he played in the 2006 final but I fucking loved him at Celtic. Absolute legend in my eyes

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Just blame Almunia. If he learned to shut his fucking legs we might have been fine

If Almunia’s mam did, we’d have fared even better

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@will24

You follow La Liga closely, Monchi has done a good job there since returning then? I remember him being linked to us. Maybe we missed out…

It’s pretty amazing how could a job he has done identifying players for them. Come to think of it I had even forgotten that ge had a spell working at Roma! Not sure why it didn’t work out for there :thinking:

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Maybe we might reignite our interest in John now Raul has gone.

His contract is being terminated so he’ll be able to leave on a free transfer, looks like he’ll be heading backing to Ajax

every Italian top team should get on this like piranhas.

:popcorn:

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I bet every Barca president the last 50 years made personal financial gains. It’s effectively a political office at the end of the day.

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